Saturday, September 26, 2009

I missed my night meal in hostel mess tonight. So i went out to eat. as it was very late i decided to walk to the nearest pastry shop.

While i was walking on the pavement by the side of the road amidst the buzz of traffic, i drowned in my sea of thoughts and as usual fished out a beautiful pearl.I mean that i figured out something substantial, something universally applicable among my stray abstract strings of thoughts. And the discovery is: people can be approximately put into two categories 1) Those who chase the big, most sought after pursuits of life Viz: money, power, fame or their big dream, inspiration, magnum opus etc. these people are very focused 2) Those who admire the minute details of life and relish every single happening, imperfection, small surprises etc... they don't have any big ambitions. they just live life as an art(now the problem is that i fall in the second category and its very difficult to make a good living with such an attitude with an added anxiety factor of all the relatives' eyes on me thinking "this boy has got everything he needs to attain a good status. he's going to come out with flying colors")

with the satisfaction of having achieved yet another milestone in fishing out conclusions from my solitude-abstract-thought processing i reclined in the steel chair of the eatery. To my surprise there was a juice item in the menu which i hadn't tasted for a while. how long? 15 years!yes. now starts the journey or rather a picnic down my memory:

i was in kinder garden then. we lived in government quarters in the middle of a beautiful tea estate in a place called Devala. there was a fruit tree in front of our house. the name of the fruit is "BUTTER FRUIT". the Fruit is of the size of a mango with a round bottom and a tapering top. it turns dark purple when ripe. it has a big round nut in the center.whats in between the nut and the purple skin is of our interest! there is buttery flesh which is scooped out, milk and suger added and beaten like we do the egg before omelet. it tastes a bit sweet and is very thick. i used to try to climb the tree to reach the fruit but it was very difficult. once i fell off the tree and the scar is still somewhere on my scalp hidden by my hairline."BUTTER FRUIT JUICE READY" said the waiter bringing me back to the present. i emptied the glass, got a cake and started walking back.i happened to cross a stray dog who was so skinny but he dint bother to stop or i would have given him a piece of the cake. two bites later i figured out i wont be able to finish the cake and was feeling sorry for not having shared it with the dog. then i thought how much food goes waste in the form of unfinished plates or even the small chunks which are unpickable with the spoon and fork!

this is when i went to PICNIC no.2:i was in my fourth standard. our house was in the the middle of the forest of Mudhumalai in a place named kargudi.

the school was 14kms away. so there was a dedicated school trip by the safari truck. there were around 50 kids all over the establishments from masinagudi to thorapalli. and there were around 5 different schools. once in a while there'll be only half a day class in my school. but the pickup will come only in the evening. so i used to catch a bus home. on one such occasion i forgot to finish my lunch in school. so i had to finish it sitting in the bus depot.

as usual the place was very dirty the added noise and smoke of the buses in idling made it a very awkward place to even think about eating. as a result i was able to finish only half of the rice in my tiff-in box. i even remember the curry and side dish.now how did i remember this memory?--> i was having the same situation now.noisy vehicles, dirty sidewalk and a cake in my hand...(the leftover of which ended up in a trashcan. i still feel sorry for that dog)